


Rest

by turtle_abyss



Series: R&R [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Coma, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 17:50:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15345225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turtle_abyss/pseuds/turtle_abyss
Summary: Tony waits for everyone to come back.Stephen waits for Tony to wake up.





	Rest

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this:  
> https://td269.tumblr.com/post/175715930737/healing
> 
> Also I have no idea how to do tabs on AO3, so....

Tony blinks heavily, watching Nebula scream over Thanos’s body. He wants to go over there. Comfort her the way she has comforted him these past…weeks? Months? He’s not sure. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t think she would appreciate it and he’s not sure he can move anyway. She’s giving that massive purple body a few extra hacks from Thor’s fucking enormous axe-thing and he can’t say he doesn’t approve.

There’s noise to his right and he thinks he hears his name? But he’s too tired to move to see. He can’t sleep yet though. He has to wait. He doesn’t remember what for, but he’s sure he can figure it out if he waits long enough.

There’s a hand on his shoulder and bloody blonde hair in front of him, Nat’s usually soothing low voice sounds frantic but he can’t make out what she’s saying. He hasn’t seen her in a long time, he thinks. Blonde doesn’t really suit her. He liked the red. Kind of misses the curls from when they first met.

Then there’s blue, silver, blue and the hands are gone and Nebula is snarling at Tasha and he wishes they would move so he could see whatever it is he’s waiting for. He doesn’t want to miss it.

His eyelids are very heavy, he notes absently. He blinks them once, twice, but his vision just seems to get fuzzier each time so he holds them open as wide as he can. It’s hard. Takes all of his focus. The blue has moved away and there’s a lot more noise now but it’s further to his right and if he wasn’t moving before, he sure isn’t moving now.

He needs to wait. He thinks Nebula knows that. He loves her a little bit. He hopes she decides to stay.

Between one blink and the next, his view is blocked again. He thinks he’s annoyed. But then it’s fine because  _ it’s the kid _ .

Peter is back. Peter is okay. A shaky hand on his cheek tilts his head up and there’s the doctor too. Good. Good. Everyone is okay.

And then his vision goes black.

~~~~~~

Stephen gets him settled in his room at the Sanctum while assuring Ms. Potts and Colonel Rhodes that Tony does not need to be in a hospital.

The advanced medical equipment onboard the spaceship that returned them to Earth did well enough at starting the mending process for the broken ribs and multiple fractures that Tony received in the final battle, but he wants to be absolutely sure.

So he begs Christine’s help instead, because he needs a steady pair of hands and someone who will actually listen to him when he tells them to stay away from Tony’s left arm.

The arm… Well, the arm can only be helped by magical means. If it can be helped at all.

The kid, Peter, only leaves long enough to find his aunt before he plants himself at the foot of the bed. He asks a hundred questions while Christine hooks Tony up to an IV and hovers silently while Stephen crafts spell after spell to strip the remains of the gauntlet away without further mangling Tony’s arm and then soothe the burns as much as he can.

Stephen frets about nerve damage, thinks this is a poor way to repay the man on whose shoulders he settled the weight of the universe. Spends his guilty moments when Peter has gone to see his aunt and he is alone with Tony, clenching his hands until they hurt and wondering how he can ever manage to apologize, however justified his reasons. Bad enough he took his own hands. Now he has taken another man’s as well.

~~~~~~

Three months pass and Tony has not woken.

Pepper cries at his bedside for the first week or so, but then she has to move on. She has to keep his company and his dream alive.

Even if he does wake up eventually, as Doctor Strange is sure he will, she doesn’t think they’ll be able to piece themselves back together again. Not how they were. She loves him. God, she loves him. But she remembers how hard things were after New York and this will be a thousand times worse and she knows she can’t do it again.

She hates herself for it, just a bit. Feels like she’s abandoning him, even when she has no intention of doing that at all. She just needs the distance in order to do it, and she knows it isn’t fair to Tony at all that she keeps pulling back when things get hard.

She visits the Sanctum every Saturday with Rhodey.

But she stops crying.

~~~~~~

It’s a small miracle that Rhodes only visits three days out of the week. At the beginning, he wouldn’t leave Tony’s side. Stephen had very nearly had to physically kick him out of the Sanctum after three weeks had passed. Even then, Stephen gets a text every morning asking about Tony.

So Rhodey visits every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with lunch. He is Wong’s new favorite person. Over food, the three of them trade news. Stephen updates Rhodey with any news on Tony, Rhodey updates them with news on the post-Thanos recovery, and Wong keeps them apprised of the goings-on at Kamar-Taj.

Stephen casts a series of spells over Tony to keep his body healthy despite his comatose state. Several of the apprentices venture out to assist with repair efforts while the masters try their hand at designing new wards to add for Earth’s defense. The army and national guard start sorting people and helping them get in contact with relatives who relocated post-snap, the naval branches of several countries’ militaries begin scouting out planes that went down over the ocean, the US Air Force begins collaborating with NASA and other space agencies around the globe to ramp up orbital defenses.

But humanity is on a hopeful upswing and the Guardians report much the same across the universe.

Eventually the news slows. Rhodey starts trading stories about Tony and pretends he doesn’t notice how Strange is riveted.

~~~~~~

Stephen gets attached to Tony. It’s nice just to have someone there. Even if that person is unconscious. He finds himself holding one-sided conversations and imagining sarcastic retorts. He’s not afraid to admit that with their short meeting and the futures he saw and this quiet, peaceful companionship he’s….well, he’s a little bit in love. Fond, certainly, at the very least. 

He knows it’s because he’s lonely, even though he has more people around him than ever these days. Pepper and Rhodes and Peter and Nebula (who prowls back into the Sanctum once a month from wherever she’s been just to check on Tony). Not just Wong and the other Masters anymore. They all, strangely enough, even seem to be fond of him. He has his doubts sometimes. Wonders if they will leave when Tony inevitably does.

But he hopes they don’t.

~~~~~~

Spring comes with a much-needed warmth and cheer and Stephen opens the curtains every morning in hopes that the sunlight will do Tony some good. He is now well settled into a routine of spending his mornings in a chair beside Tony’s bed, book in one hand and Tony’s right hand in his other. Sometimes he reads aloud, but most mornings between them are quiet. Peaceful.

Peter spends Saturday mornings with them, doing homework at the foot of the bed or dozing. His aunt always sends him with some sort of abominable creation that he pawns off on Wong, who then pawns it off onto the novices.

As pleasant as it is, he can’t help but think of the passionate man from Rhodey’s stories, the sweet man from Pepper’s, the mentor that Peter misses so dearly, and the man he saw on Maw’s ship who was so terrified and so so brave. The man he watched die for him over and over again in the time stone’s futures.

He holds his hand tighter.

And maybe that’s why he feels it move.


End file.
